"To restore and conserve fish, wildlife and habitat throughout the state and teach others to do the same."

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Fulfilling Russ Bengel’s Dream

This article is from the September-October issue of our newsletter "The Wildlife Volunteer".

30 Years of Fighting for Wildlife

Russell H. Bengel, the Conservancy’s founder, was
a man of great achievement and vision.He was born into, and experienced, the wildlife abundance of the early
20th century, a time when waterfowl passed through Michigan by the
millions.But his good fortune in witnessing
this wildlife majesty turned into a burden.

By the mid 20th century wetlands were
being drained, filled and altered all across the landscape.“Progress” had destroyed many of the wetlands
Russ loved and left the sky wanting for waterfowl.Bengel, who died in 1984, used to get a tear
in his eye when he would describe the loss of waterfowl habitat in his beloved Reithmiller
Marsh, in Northeastern Jackson County.But he fought back.

Russell Bengel served on the Michigan Conservation
Commission from 1940-46 and led the successful effort to acquire the Pointe
Mouillee Shooting Club in 1945.The
2,600-acre marsh was the largest wetland area remaining in Western Lake Erie and
would become a publicly-owned wetland forever.

Bengel also became active in Ducks Unlimited and
supported waterfowl restoration at home and in Canada.But his crowning achievement came in 1979
when he led a small group of waterfowlers to found the Michigan Waterfowl
Foundation, renamed the Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation, renamed the
Michigan Wildlife Conservancy.

The Conservancy has now been fulfilling Russ
Bengel’s vision for Michigan’s wildlife for 30 years.As we celebrate three decades of achievement
we should also remember some basic principles on which he founded the
organization on.First, spend he
Conservancy’s money on capital improvements – increasing the habitat
inventory.Second, make all of our work
additive – don’t use our money to supplant state or federal wildlife
dollars.And lastly, don’t sit on the
money he gave us – spend it on good work and more money will come.While we have spent Conservancy money on some
terrific projects over many years, raising new money has been a constant
challenge.But the Conservancy has been
true to the original operating principals that Russ Bengel described in 1982.

Things were so much simpler in 1982 when the
Michigan Wildlife Conservancy was created.Habitat issues really had only one dimension – the loss of millions of
acres of productive wildlife habitat.Problems that were so narrowly focused were much easier to address.We just worked to fix the acres in question
or tried to create more habitat by planting, enhancing, or changing site
conditions.

Invasive exotic species are another issue that
habitat conservationists did not consider two decades ago.Examples like the carp, house sparrow, and
lamprey are commonly known to all.But
the new wave of exotics is coming rapidly and the implications much more
ominous.Today’s exotics aren’t just
higher order plants and animals, but viruses and microscopic organisms that can
hide in a thimbleful of water.

Our Great Lakes are under siege today, with a new
species arriving in the belly of a ship about every seven months.It is reported that the Great Lakes currently
harbor 183 exotic species.

Terrestrial exotics have also become an immense
problem in our state.Invasive plants
pose a threat to wildlife as significant as that of habitat destruction.And these terrestrial exotics are smothering
the landscape at a rapid pace.The
Conservancy plans to respond by educating and training our citizens to
recognize and eliminate exotic organisms in their communities.

The future challenges that face wildlife are hard
to predict.We know only that there will
be many, and some will be completely new to us.To succeed we will have to stay creative, efficient and nimble.But most of all we will have to be open to
changing the way we operate, because what is being thrown at us is constantly
changing.The Conservancy will be up to
the task because we are not committed to a single way of looking at
problems.With the support of Michigan’s
citizens we are confident that the movement begun by Russ Bengel in 1982 will
succeed in sustaining the wild creatures that enrich our lives for all time.